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The Maltese Falcon In my opinion, The Maltese Falcon is the best example of the detective story of the early years of XX century, which was followed by the creation of movie. Written in 1930, The Maltese Falcon creates its own rules and style for detective fiction. It was a groundbreaking book, offering up a style of writing that most had not seen before. Hammett wrote as if everyone wanted to talk: smooth, assured, and witty. He wrote with a graceful masculinity that made being bad beautiful. He created a world where cigarette and gun smoke mixed and through the cloud, so that you could see dames packing and menacing thugs on street corners.
It was from this writing that was produced one of the first film noir movies. Film noir films (often in black and white) showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism. Expressionistic lighting, odd camera angles, circling cigarette smoke, and unbalanced compositions mark film noir. Settings are often interiors with low lighting, Venetian-blinded windows, and dark and gloomy appearances.
Exteriors are often night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and again, low lighting. Story locations are often in murky and dark streets, dimly lit apartments and hotel rooms of big cities. It was an atmosphere of menace, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong. Narratives are frequently complex and convoluted, typically with flashbacks or voice-over narration. Revelations regarding the hero are made to explain / justify the heros own cynical perspective on life. The Maltese Falcon meets all of these standards and more, becoming the grandfather of film noir.
The movie is in black and white, actually, more black and gray than white, for the entire film, save the scenes in Miss O'Shaughnessys apartment, seems to be set in shadow, as if it were always night or the sky were about to fall in. The setting is San Francisco, surely a big city, but not the northeastern metropolises we are used to in our detective fiction. There were plenty of odd angles, especially during fight scenes, and scenes with Gutman and Cairo. Usually the tilts were used to draw the eye to a specific character, or to note that something is not right, off center. Since most of the characters in the movie smoke, there is always a halo of smoke hanging about. We are held captivate throughout by the voice of Sam Spade, the ever cool, deep, voice that always knows what to say.
Cairo You always have a very smooth explanation ready, huh? Spade What do you want me to do? Learn to stutter? Snippets like these run throughout the movie that turn the movie into the masterpiece that it is. The Maltese Falcon starts out with Sam Spade, who is a private detective in San Francisco in the late nineteen twenties, sitting at his desk in his office when a Miss Wonderly came in. She said that she came from New York looking for her sister who possibly was kidnapped and is probably somewhere in the San Francisco area.
Miss Wonderly said she met a man named Thursby at a parcel office who supposedly had her sister. While Miss Wonderly was telling the story, Spades partner Miles Archer came in. Miss Wonderly said she had a meeting with the man that night and that she wanted to follow him afterwards to find her sister. Spade asked if she could describe the man, and she gave Spade some assistance, but it was too little for Spade though. Miss Wonderly offered two hundred dollars (a long while ago it was not a bad money) for the job and Archer quickly grabbed a hundred and said he would do it. After Miss Wonderly left, Spade told Archer to watch his back.
That night, while Spade was sleeping, he received a phone call. It was the police telling him that Archer was murdered. Spade got up, made and lit a cigarette, and went to the scene of crime. Spade got there and found some facts.
Archer was found in an alley, probably shot at close range, with a British-made Webley revolver. Spade observed how Archers gun was in his holster and that his jacket was still buttoned. Spade phoned his secretary, Effie, and asked her to call Iva, his partners wife, to break the bad news. Then he returned to his apartment. Spade sat awake drinking and smoking and thinking about his partners murder when the police knocked on his door. The cops informed Spade that Thursby had been shot.
The cops wanted to milk Spade for information on this job Archer was doing and whom it was for. Spade gave the police no information, and the police left irritated. The next morning Iva was in the office waiting for Spade. When Spade came in, Iva jumped to him and started kissing him. Spade told her that it was not a good idea for them too to be seen together because it would make them suspects.
Iva asked if he killed Archer and Spade replied, with a laugh, no. When Iva left, Spade took a taxi to where Miss Wonderly was staying. She had left but left a forwarding address. Spade went to the new address and found Miss Wonderly. She confessed that her real name was Brigid O'Shaughnessy.
Spade said that he did not believe anything she had told him. He asked for the facts. Brigid would only tell him that she and Thursby were partners in something she could not reveal and that she feared he would portray her. She also said that Thursby was carrying a British-made Webley that night. This gave some new information to detective and later influenced the investigation.
When Spade returned to his office, a gangster, Joel Cairo, was waiting to ask about the connection between the two murders. He confessed his interest was more than just mere curiosity; and it seemed that Cairo was searching for a missing black metallic falcon and that, in some way, Thursby had been connected with the falcons disappearance. Cairo was prepared to pay five thousand dollars for the statuettes return. Spade told him that when there would be a chance to get his hands on the bird, Cairo would be immediately contacted.
That evening, as Spade left his apartment to meet Brigid, he noticed a young punk following him. Spade quickly lost the tail and went to Brigid's hotel. Brigid became visibly upset on hearing of Cairo and the money he had offered, she believed that Spade intended to double-cross her, and before she would tell him anything more than what he already knew, she would have to speak with Cairo herself. They decided to meet with the insignificant thug later that night at Spades apartment to discuss the issue.
While they were meeting with Cairo, the police called again. Spade was about to get rid of them when they suddenly heard Cairo yell for help from Spades apartment. When the cops rushed in and found Cairo holding a gun on Brigid, they naturally demanded to know what was going on. Spade offered them a contrived story about this all being a put-on to make them look foolish. The cops reluctantly left, obviously not falling for Spades explanation.
Early the next morning, Spade received a visit from a Mr. Gutman. He explained that he had hired Thursby and Brigid to obtain the Falcon from Constantinople and bring it to him. They got greedy and decided to keep it for themselves. Spade demanded some information on what was so special about this Falcon. Gutman refused to reveal the truth and Spade was left only with one choice to leave.
Later, the punk, Wilber, who was employed by Gutman, came to get Spade and bring him back. Gutman agreed to let him know the information about statuette. After the story was told, Spade passed out form a drug that Gutman had put in his drink and was left with a punch in the face. Spade went to look for Brigid, but she was missing. He had found a clue of a boat docking that day and suspected she would be there.
When he got there, the crew said that captain, Brigid, Cairo, Gutman, and Wilber, had left together. Later, as Detective Spade related these facts, to Effie, a huge man barged into his office, held a package out to Sam, and keeled over, dead. Sam opened the package. The Maltese Falcon was inside. He guessed that the dead man was the captain.
He quickly hid the statue away. It was definitely the build-up of the film. After this point, when all the events of this complicated situation that was considered almost finished, the most interesting part begins. That night as Spade went to his apartment, Brigid was there by the door to meet him. Inside waited Gutman, Cairo and the Wilber. They demanded the falcon.
Spade claimed that they would have to wait until morning before he could get to the bird and that such a valuable item would now cost them ten thousand dollars (however, he understood that it will be possible for him to get the statuette and was simply forcing them increase the pay). As the night wore on, Spade suggested that Gutman turned over Wilber to the cops. Gutman hesitated at first, but Spade warned that he would not turn over the Falcon unless they could come up with a fall guy. Gutman finally consented to make Wilber the fall guy, and before the Wilber could retaliate, Sam took his guns him and knocked him cold.
Morning came, and Spade, after a brief absence, finally brought out the prized Falcon, collecting from Gutman ten one-thousand dollar bills. To make sure the Falcon was authentic, Gutman scratched away some of the enamel; which proved it was a lead fake. Gutman hurriedly reclaimed the money he had brought and, followed by the other men, ran out of the apartment. Spade called the cops to tell them to arrest the three men.
Spade then turned to Brigid and told her he was going to turn her in for the murder of Archer. Brigid tried to deny, then confessed, but tried to beg Spade to change his mind. Spade would not go against his morals and principle and he refused to do so. He had finally seized his partners killer. This definitely was the climax of the story and it was a climax in the movie as well. At this point, it will be possible to conclude that it is already a time for resolution.
Spade took Brigid to his apartment to wait for Mr. Cairo. While waiting, Spade decided to tell Brigid a story of a case he did some time back. It was about a man who was almost killed by a falling beam form a building. He decided from that that he did not like the direction his life was going. He was a wealthy man with a family and he felt that he could leave everything right then, and his family would be well provided for with his current wealth, so he left.
He just was tired of being around criminals and wanted to start new life, which he could easily allow due to the sufficient funds. He traveled around for a while before he settled in a suburb and ended up marrying again and having a child. His first wife was the one who hired Spade because someone told her that he saw her husband, after he was alone for a couple of years. Spade found him and learned the story, but Brigid was not even listening.
There is nothing too special about the setting of the movie, but there are some differences between the description of the situations in the book and their different portrayal in the film. The meaning of the film is not too easy to define exactly, because there are several lessons it teaches. However, in my opinion, the most interesting and the most useful knowledge (if it is possible to call it knowledge I would rather prefer to use the word experience or conclusion supporting own thoughts about the case) could be...
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Research essay sample on Black And White Maltese Falcon
